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What a difference a year makes for Goldman Sachs.

Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein can thank JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and former Barclays CEO Bob Diamond for taking the the bad-boy spotlight off of him for the time being.

One summer it's being accused of destroying the U.S. financial system and facing criminal charges, the next summer it's barely making headlines except for a $10 million investment in a social program that works to keep prisoners from going back to jail. Odd, right?

Well, that's the kind of wild year Goldman Sachs has had, and these days it's happy to be flying under the bad-news-radar.

Most recently Goldman received some great news courtesy of the Department of Justice. The federal prosecutor said yesterday that it will not pursue criminal charges against Goldman Sachs for its role in the financial crisis due to lack of evidence.

The DOJ's investigation was launched last year after Senator Carl Levin issued a scathing 600+-page report accusing Goldman Sachs of engaging in massive conflicts of interest, contaminating the U.S. financial system with toxic mortgages and undermining public trust in U.S. markets in the months leading up to the financial crisis.

Levin sent the report to the feds in hopes of scoring criminal charges against the firm's executives but the DoJ concluded that "there is not a viable basis to bring a criminal prosecution with respect to Goldman Sachs or its employees in regard to the allegations set forth in the report."

Goldman Sachs is used to feeling lots of heat. It's viewed as Wall Street's evil empire of sorts for putting profits before clients more so than any other firm. Remember muppet clients and vampire squids? But these days Goldman is busy clearing up its name while the rest of Wall Street seems to be caught up in one disaster after another. We've seen massive trading errors, erratic and costly trading glitches, rate-rigging and two failed futures firms in just a matter of months.

But guess which firm hasn't been involved in any of that Wall Street drama. Yup. Goldman Sachs. CEO Lloyd Blankfein can thank JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and former Barclays CEO Bob Diamond for taking the the bad-boy spotlight off of him for the time being.

Consider all the recent blunders. Most notably here in the U.S. JPMorgan Chase endured a huge trading error in the second quarter leaving an ugly mark on the company and its CEO's reputation. Long viewed as the most stable bank in the system with a CEO who won favor with Washington JPM was rocked when it announced a $5.8 billion trading loss. Jamie Dimon testified before lawmakers twice in a matter of days to explain what went wrong. That's a hot-seat often reserved for Blankfein.

JPM's loss hit shareholders hard as the bank has lost $14 billion of market value since May when it announced the news. Shares of JPM are down 10% since May while Goldman Sachs shares are down 3.5% in the same period. Year-to-date Goldman is outperforming JPM with shares up 13% while JPM is up 10.5%.

Then there's the massive Libor-rigging investigation which could potentially hit some 18 financial institutions. Regulators from both the UK and US are investigating just about every bank on the Street and in Europe for their role in the rate-rigging scandal. JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citi, UBS, Deutsche Bank, RBS, Lloyds Banking Group, Societe Generale, Credit Suisse and others are facing inquiries over the matter. Notice anyone missing? That'd be Goldman.

To be fair, Goldman is not among those being investigating because it's not a Libor-reporting bank like the others. Still, to have a scandal this large it's almost odd not to see Goldman's name in the mix.

Goldman, by its nature, wasn't lumped in with that massive $25 billion mortgage settlement that the big banks including Wells Fargo agreed to. That might be a skewed argument since Goldman isn't a mortgage originator so let's compare it to a direct U.S.-based rival.

Consider the problems at Morgan Stanleythis year. Facebook. Need I say more? Facebook's IPO was the most hyped in history and arguably the most disappointing. It left retail investors holding shares of a company that no one truly knows how to value, and worse, shares that have sunk over 40%. Leading that IPO was Morgan Stanley which priced Facebook shares at a mind-blowing $38. Ouch.

Here's the real irony. Goldman was an early investor in Facebook putting up $450 million in January 2011. When Morgan Stanley was selected as the lead banker on the IPO though many called it a blow for rival Goldman Sachs. Since the IPO Morgan share are down 7%. Oh, and it's been downgraded severely by the ratings firms.